A 21-year-old Dalit student, R Iyyasamy, was attacked by three caste Hindu men in Tamil Nadu’s Melapidavur village on Wednesday evening for riding a Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle.
Iyyasamy, a third-year mathematics student, suffered serious injuries on both hands and is currently being treated at Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai.
His relative, Muniyasami, said, “They attacked him with weapons and said, ‘Only upper-caste youths can ride high-end bikes. Dalits should not.’ They abused him with casteist slurs.”
Muniyasami added that Iyyasamy managed to escape and reach home, but his family’s house was later ransacked by the attackers.
Iyyasamy’s father, Boominathan, said, “They were not happy that my son rode a Bullet bike in the village. They had even damaged his bike before.”
Police, however, claim the attack was due to a personal quarrel. “The Bullet issue is not the main reason. Iyyasamy had teased one of the accused, which led to the attack,” a police source said.
The accused — R Vinothkumar (21), A Atheeshwaran (22), and M Vallarasu (21) — have been arrested and booked under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.
